The field of the invention generally relates to public announcement systems (also referred to as public address systems or PA systems) for passenger vehicles, and more particularly, to systems and methods for distributing recorded messages to a public announcement system installed on a passenger vehicle.
Typically, common carrier passenger vehicles, such as airplanes, passenger trains, buses, cruise ships, etc., have an onboard public announcement system for presenting messages, such as safety announcements, status announcements, food and beverage announcements, promotional messages, connecting travel announcements, etc. The messages may be live messages such as announcements spoken into a microphone of the public announcement system by a crew member, or pre-recorded messages stored on a storage device of the system. The messages may be played over loudspeakers installed throughout the vehicle, through an in-seat entertainment unit (e.g., a video monitor and audio output) via a vehicle entertainment system, and/or other suitable modality. For example, many commercial passenger aircraft have an in-flight entertainment system (IFES) and a public announcement system including loudspeakers located throughout the aircraft cabin.
An IFES generally includes a centralized system management unit which is networked to a plurality of entertainment modules installed at each seat or at spaced locations throughout the aircraft cabin, such as mounted in each of the seatbacks of the passenger seats, in the aircraft ceiling, on bulkhead walls and/or deployable from an armrest. The system management unit may include a server for distributing multimedia content to each of the entertainment modules. Each entertainment module typically includes a control unit, a video display, an audio output (e.g., an audio/headphone jack), and a user input device (e.g., a remote control, touchscreen, etc.) for the passenger to control the operation of the entertainment module. The IFES and public announcement system may be integrated or separate systems operably coupled together such that public announcements may be played on the entertainment modules as well as being played over the loudspeakers.
Many of the public announcement messages presented over such public announcement systems in vehicles are pre-recorded messages which are prepared and recorded well in advance and then are loaded onto, and stored on the public announcement system in the vehicles. For instance, many safety messages, promotional messages, food and drink messages, embarking and disembarking procedure messages, and the like, are recorded messages which are loaded and stored on the public announcement system of the vehicles. However, the current methods for loading recorded messages onto public announcement system installed on vehicles entails physically carrying a recorded message loader having a storage device with recorded messages stored thereon, such as a hard disk drive, optical storage device (e.g., a CD or DVD), solid state storage device, or the like, onboard the vehicle, accessing a content server of public announcement system and connecting the storage device to the content server. A download or copy process is then initiated, and once completed, the recorded message loader is disconnected and removed from the vehicle. Due to the cumbersome and time consuming process for loading recorded messages, the recorded messages on the system are updated very infrequently resulting in fairly static recording that may not change for months or years. As a result, passengers, especially frequent travelers, tend to ignore the stale messages rather than listening to the announcements which may include important information, such as safety procedures. In addition, the recorded messages will not include up-to-date information, such as recent news, messages regarding current holidays, or messages in languages pertinent to current travel routes for the vehicle.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems and methods for distributing and/or playing recorded messages on public announcement systems installed on vehicles.